BREAKING: Explosions in Iran, Iraq, and Syria | LiveNOW from FOX

us whether all right, so

we're going to break into

this. We do have some

breaking news to share.

I'm Austin Westfall. I'll be

on the desk with you for

the next few hours as we

cover. largely the Israel.

Hamas War take a look at

this tweet from Fox News

foreign correspondent. Trey

Yin saying he is following

reports of large explosions

and Iran. Iraq. and Syria

working to confirm and

gather. more information

Now, I'm going to read

a little bit from the

Jerusalem Post who was

saying that an Israeli

missile strike targeted a

site in Iran early Friday

morning according to ABC

News. the report came

shortly after. local sources

reported explosions in

well as in the AUA.

governent of Southern Syria

and in the Baghdad area and

babil gait, uh, governorate

of Iraq early Friday

morning, so we're we're

kind of getting details in

fluidly right now. what

we're hearing is that

there are videos reportedly

from ispahan, which is in

Iran. appearing to show

Iranian air defenses.

activated in the sky over

the area. the Iranian

agency reported that an

explosion Was Heard uh east

of vahan and near the

is van. Airport. bars

stressed that the cause of

the explosion was unknown as

of yet. But again, I will

reiterate and Israeli missile

strike targeted a site in

Iran early Friday morning

according to ABC News the

Jerusalem Post. saying that

the report came shortly

after local sources reported

explosions. in central Iran

as well as in Syria. and

in Iraq. as well, This is

a story that we're following

closely. We're going to be

following Trey yinks feed

closely as well as you can

see. he's working to

conform. and gather more

information now, but for now

we do have the perfect

person standing by to

help us. dissect some of

what's going on. Dr. Alan

bursting. Um, alone let's

start here. so far Iraq.

Iran Syria is where we're

hearing these explosions are

taking place we as of yet

do not have any independent

is responsible for these

attacks. What? surface level

information? are we finding

so far tonight?

So good to see you. Um and

you know like you said

this is happening as we

speak. It is currently

5:00 am in Israel. Um,

you know, which is typical

for when like, you know,

sort of cross border

everything I'm saying

obviously is very very

surface level. Um, right now

the fact that the now

occurred the only attack

that's being reported thus

far in Iran. the fact that

it occurred in ispahan.

is not surprising. His

fan is very strategic.

also very symbolic It is

an area where there have

nuclear. facilities and

sites since 2004. Um, I

cannot say that these

strikes occurred

specifically targeting the

nuclear sites in but it is

it's a very symbolic

place. for Israel to

carry out that attack on

the 1 hand. on the other

hand, it's also a very

symbolic and important. as

far as Israel's concerned

the United States right

now. that it is possible

that this is a retaliation

that's being carried out

throughout the entire

region. in of only on

its attack targeted. through

all of its weight and

certainly not everything

that it could but

everything that it

chose to throw in the attack

it through at Israel

an Israeli interests or us

interests throughout the

Middle East. in turn the

United States has applied

a lot of pressure on

Israel saying do not

escalate this further Do

not now throw a massive

Israel carries out now a

very big retaliation on the

1 hand. on the other hand.

not all targeted that Iran

itself. 1 symbolic attack

at Iran and then attacks

at different strategic

targets that Iran may have

in Iraq in Syria, We may

even see a tax that occur

in Yemen. That is the way

for Israel. in turn to say

on the 1 hand it can

satisfy the internal code.

Coalition and say yes, we

attacked Iran and

specifically. Sahan a very

strategic ways. on the other

hand. not you know forgive

me piss off the United

States. by now escalating

situation further and

actually carrying out the

bulk of the retaliation

elsewhere. So again,

that's all speculation.

in the last half an hour,

but that's what I'm reading

in the fact that like the

first reports of attacks

were not all in Iran. In

fact the majority of them

so far are not in Iran.

Syria, I'm curious about

isahan because we're we're

seeing and a lot of the

initial reports that are

coming through right now

we're seeing that ishan is

trending, uh on social

media we're seeing what is

the significance of that

particular location? so this

didn't pass there have been

good call on rest. in that

area. but more importantly

than that. It's

strategic location

because Iran started its

nuclear program. in the

there's a lot of rumors

that they tried to start

it before but in the early

21st century is really

when it started to develop

as nuclear program. it

already in 2004. Um,

there were there was a lot

of reports. of different.

nuclear research that was

being done. in as I tried

to read the news as it's

coming in now, so I'm

sort of half half looking

a tweet to come in. um in

nuclear facilities that may

have been positioned. in

ispahan itself. That's not

to say that their main

nuclear research site. I

don't know where their main

nuclear facilities are. Um,

I presume that you know

both

Israel and the United States

you know, but historically

it's fine. It's been 1 of

the places. alongside Toran

that Iran has tried to

very very strategically

protect. It is deployed a

lot of anti-air. batteries

there. So

they're obviously something

strategic in that City.

whether the IDF Israel.

admits or doesn't admit and

whether they actually do hit

those strategic sites. or

do not the fact that they

hit specifically the

Strategic cities. is would

be as significant. as an

attacking a strategic site.

Let's say if missiles

hit Israel right is the

difference if you hit the

northern part of Israel

or V Jerusalem or to

the or if an attack would

come to the United States.

it would just come off

differently if it had even

you know, obviously an

important place. some

Seattle or or or,

California or if it hit

DC or New York there are

places that are like

important to the the culture

and important to the

country. in saying that

this is a site that

will never be hit. That's

why 9/11 right the Pentagon

the, New York. like there

are sites that are very

important

is just 1 of these places.

that is seen as very

protected and very

important. due to its

involvement in nuclear

20 years. So carrying out

a strike there is sending a

message. It's sending a

message to Iran but more

than that. It's also sending

a message to the Israeli

retaliated to something

important. with maybe

without needing to actually

escalate. towards a

full on Regional War. what

have been some of the

narratives? surrounding?

International? pressure

tort Israel Obviously there

has been a lot of

speculation out there about

weekend. I believe. Um

there have been many reports

to say that. Israel will

respond in some way. I've

also seen reporting to say

that they're still weighing

how to respond. catch us

up, uh over this past

week uh has Israel said

about whether or not they

will respond in some way

to Saturday's Iranian

repeatedly said that

they're going to respond

There's been no report

that Israel said that

it's not going to respond.

The Prime Minister said

that the Minister of

Defense has said that

Minister Gantz has said

that the chief of staff has

they're going to respond.

There are some surprising

political parties that go

have to do with Israel's

internal Politics the older

Orthodox parties and have

actually called in Israel

reasons, but the but but

majority of everyone in

Israel's establishment.

security establishment and

leading the government have

said that they're going to

respond. at the same time.

There's monumental.

International pressure from

the United States. to the

EU. to different allies of

Israel. to non allies of

have all called on Israel

to say Do not escalate the

situation for they're also

Regional Partners Jordan

very scared that the Skies

of Jordan are going to

turn out to be the area

where Iran and Israel

Clash. There's been a lot

of pressure back and

forth. 1 of the 1 of the

reasons to suspect. that

escalate the situation very

much further. That's why

again at least as of now

when we're about 45 minutes

into Israel's retaliation.

I am saying maybe we'll see

the region in the less on

Direct attacks on Iran.

is because it's been a

couple of reports about The

ongoing um, negotiations

between Israel and the

United States. that

really would

suggest that Israel is not

going to carry out a major

attack on Iran. 1 is the

fact that the United

States today. vetoed the

UN Security Council

Palestine as a full member

state of the UN. it would

be very surprising to me.

if Israel would on that

day that the US pretty

favor in the US. Israel

were to carry out an

attack in Iran. that the

US didn't sign off on

Israel will just slap you

on in The slap the US

United States. KNE about

what Israel's response is

going to be and therefore

it's probably not going to

be that escalatory 1 2

there's also been reports

last 2 days. that part of

the negotiations between

Israel and the United

States in the last 2 days.

have been that the United

States is going to

approve. an Israeli

operation in Rafa right the

Israeli invasion of the

most southern town of

Raphael we've been talking

about for what a month and

a half already. is going

exchange for Israel not

carrying out. a major

retaliation in Iran that's

going to be the back and

forth today There was a

meeting between the head of

Council. it Israel and the

US National Security

adviser. and at that

meeting the United States

even took a different tone.

It said yes, we share the

desire to destroy Hamas and

Rafa whereas before they

were saying we disagree

that. the Israel needs to

invade Rafa so seemingly

there's some agreement

between Israel and the

United States with regards

to invading Rafa and if

that means

The Israel's agreed to not

carry out the big retaliation

against Iran. what we may

see is again something more

minimal like a a nominal

attack. on Iran itself. and

then a much larger

retaliation or meaningful

retaliation. against the

regional interests of Iran.

in Syria or in Iraq

again, I think maybe we'll

see something in Yemen.

remains to be seen. and we

obviously wait here to to

see if there is any

confirmation in the

immediate time as to

whether or not this is

actually. an Israeli attack.

I'm going to pull up some

live images we have

because I know we're both

checking. our feeds right now

our news wires. We're we're

both looking for information

in real time here. This

is a live image out of

Tel Aviv. We are watching

we were watching these

images live as we were

watching those Uh, yeah

Iranian strikes, uh make

their way it was an

hours long. Affair as we

sat here. uh us time.

Saturday afternoon, this

is a live image out of

Southern. Gaza this is a

camera planted in southern

Israel looking at. the Gaza

Skyline. Um, I do know

that. what we do look at

and a lot of times what we

rely on with these feeds

is seeing any type of

military activity taking

place in these areas, but

now we're talking about a

completely different area.

Uh alone we're talking about

Iran and then we can't

forget We're also hearing

reports of explosions

in Iraq. and Syria, what

could be the tie-in to

Iraq and Syria specifically

here so Iraq is

particularly interesting in

this context because let's

not forget that the entire.

result of the attack that

occurred in Syria. against

the Iranian Consulate in

Damascus. the IDF has been

carrying out skirmishes

with different militias in

Syria since the War militias

and also prior to the war

going back to the Syrian

Civil War. there have been

different escalations and

Realms between the IDF and

militias. in Syria and even

the Syrian Army. the idea

of though has really

carried out attacks in Iraq.

Iraq is much farther.

It's a different state there

was even some notion. very

very fleeting. for a while

with the new new Iraqi

government here and there

that they might even be

relations between Israel and

Iraq. the Israel is not

carried out a lot of attacks

in Iraq specifically. it's

being reported that

there are. attacks that are

occurring in Baghdad. and

again all this speculation

All we know is that

explosions were heard in

Baghdad and it is

technically possible that

that's a coincidence. I

doubt it, but it is

technically possible. that

we're not going to hear

that Israel's all of a

sudden the attack sites in

Baghdad, but instead that

other things are happening

in that region. but

attacking the entire region.

Iran. Iraq. Syria and there's

also ongoing as there are

every nights attacks in

Lebanon. is Israel also

trying to send a message

back? and Iran tried to

send a message with its

attack. It did not throw all

of its weight. into

attacking Israel. it threw a

good amount of weight.

350 drones. ballistic

missiles and cruise

missiles trying to send a

message. attacking the

entire region. and

specifically maybe Iranian

targets. in the heart of

Baghdad. or in Syria at

the same moment. as

overcoming the different

Iranian air defenses and the

current attack in. Israel

sending a message back.

Israel saying, you know

don't pay with us. you want

to carry out that attack

We have the ability to

strike back. not only in

Iran if we want to we

can but not only in Iran.

all of your interests Iraq.

Syria again, I would be

surprised if Israel does

not carry out some attack

in Yemen also, although

that also would have to

be negotiated with the

United States, but Israel

has yet to retaliate to the

houthi attacks and it's been

waiting for an opportunity.

So it's possible that

we'll hear about that also

tonight. So again, that

would be sort of this

middle ground on the 1

hand saying look we

struck back. on the other

hand. but we did not now

escalate it to a foreign

war right? similarly to the

way that Israel came under

pressure from the world.

and also some internal

pressure. Saying you don't

need to retaliate to Iran

They didn't actually cause

similarly, right if this

is it. it may not be but

if this is it for

Israel's retaliation. then

Iran may come under the

same pressure internally.

Or maybe from Russia or

from other countries saying

look you don't need to

retaliate to this now.

This is not an escalatory

move that you have no

choice but to retaliate to

so again that reason to be

read into this Regional

attack and why Israel might

be carrying that out and

more policing more

emphasis on the region

like Iraq rather than

Iran. I want to ask. we

we've been covering. this.

Iran Israel situation. all

week ever since Saturday,

of course. um when we

talk about how Israel has

said that they would

retaliate for Saturday's

attack. What has Iran said

in response to that claim

because Iran has also said

that they would retaliate

to Israel's retaliation,

correct? Absolutely. Iran

has tried to make clear.

that what they wanted to

achieve. in their attack.

is a a new phase of

strategy. Up until now.

Iran has had. this ongoing

sort of proxy war with

Israel. In which Israel.

carries out, you know. it's

ongoing skirmishes with

different Terror

organizations. in the

region. and Iran funds them.

and on occasion Israel would

retaliate against also even

Iranian revolutionary guards.

but that had nothing to do

with direct Israeli Iran.

Iran was upping the ante

and saying

know the rules of the game

have changed. now you

struck us in Syria. We're

striking you directly. the

big fear in Israel was

that if Israel does not

retaliate against this

right now, what's going to

happen the next time?

Israel wants the carry out

an attack in Syria for its

own strategic. practical

going to be now a new

equation? that every time

Israel carries out an

attack against an Iranian

Target or even non-iranian

Target. Let's say

Hezbollah Target. in Syria

or in Lebanon all of

a sudden now Iran will say